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All the King’s Men
by Robert Penn Warren, restored edition ©2001 by Harcourt Books. $30 (hardcover), $15 (paperback). A Book review By Greg
Toney
A
few months ago, I could look out the window of my office and see an
extremely bright glow engulfing the Louisiana State Capitol. The
filming of “All the King’s Men,” the movie starring Sean Penn, Kate
Winslet, and Jude Law, among other stars, was under way. For a while,
filming continued at the Capitol under the watchful eyes of Huey Long's
statue. This remake of the 1949 movie that won the Oscar for best
picture and best actor (Broderick Crawford) is expected to be an Oscar
contender itself. Native
son James Carville, who himself seems like a character out of a
Flannery O'Connor story, is the executive producer. In one news story
about the filming, the ever-enthusiastic Carville dared readers to read
“All the King’s Men.” This book is a standard for Louisiana college
students, so I had read it. But I decided to take his dare and read
what was described as the restored edition.
The
restored edition takes nothing away from the earlier edition. But it
adds much to this great novel, the story of an idealistic politician
turned corrupt governor. The first thing the reader notices is that
Willie Stark is now Willie Talos. Warren’s editor in 1947 suggested the
change to Stark. It must have sounded more Southern. In his original
manuscript, Warren named the governor “Talos” after the bronze man in
Greek mythology. Talos was the guardian of Crete who threw boulders at
ships that tried to land. Those who have seen the movie “Jason and the
Argonauts” remember that giant creature. Those who have lived in
Louisiana know why Warren chose that creature as the inspiration for
the governor.
The narrator, Jack Burden, has more of an
edge in the restored edition. Burden
is Talos’ “brain.” In this edition, he is more abrupt, at times, almost
crass. Warren’s editor in the 1940s also removed a literary device
which Warran used to illustrate Burden’s abruptness. Warren, in his
original manuscript and restored here, introduces Burden’s dialogue
with a colon instead of a comma. Apparently, Warren meant to set apart
Burden’s words. What an attention to detail.
Burden’s
character and his relationship with Anne Stanton, his true love, and
her brother, Adam, is explored more fully in the restored edition. Who
Jack Burden is and what he becomes are central to the story. Jack’s
relationships with his ancestry and with the man he believed was his
father are highlighted. But it is Jack’s role as narrator that is
central to the novel. Near the end of the novel, Warren has Jack
consider his role:
But
to return to that day: The fact of my ignorance during the course of
the events of the day creates a peculiar problem in narrative. Things
as they came to me that day were only, or almost only, appearance, for
I lacked knowledge of their logic. But if I narrate them in terms of
the logic later perceived, that is, in terms of the principle in which
inheres their reality, something is wrong, too. For in art as in life
there is a sin against Appearance as well as against Reality. And there
are no descending circles and only one flame in Hell. But it is a
beauty.
How
that passage and others like it will translate on the movie screen, I
have not the answer. After reading the book, one does not have to see
the movie, however I can’t wait to see if Carville can pull it
off.
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